Intentions to Marry, 1866

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840378, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 393

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1244	3 December 1866	Benjamin Shadbolt Elizabeth Perham	Benjamin Shadbolt Elizabeth Perham 💍 1866/7246	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	41 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar Christchurch	987		3 December 1866	H.W. Maude Deputy Registrar
1245	4 December 1866	John Walker Jemima Jane Gordon	John Walker Jemima Jane Gordon 💍 1866/7681	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 23	Christchurch Do	10 years 3 years	House of R.G. Fraser Christchurch	1138		4 December 1866	Rev. C.J. Fraser
1246	4 December 1866	Mathew Toohay Mary Eagleton	Matthew Toohay Mary Eagleton 💍 1866/7486	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 21	Christchurch Do	9 mths 4 mths	Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	1071		4 December 1866	Rev. J. Chataigner
1247	5 December 1866	John Dilloway Eliza Churchie	John Dilloway Eliza Churchill 💍 1866/7321	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Selwyn Christchurch	5 mths 8 years	Riccarton Church	1014		5 December 1866	Rev. C.B. Bowen
1248	6 December 1866	Henry Jenkins Rosa Keogh	Henry Jenkins Rosa Keogh 💍 1866/7285	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	27 22	Christchurch Do	11 mths 5 mths	Wesleyan Chapel Christchurch	1001		6 December 1866	Rev. - Buddle
1249	6 December 1866	James Murray Frances Blackley	James Murray Frances Blackley 💍 1866/7489	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	28 25	Christchurch Do	12 mths 12 mths	Roman Catholic Chapel Christchurch	1072		6 December 1866	Rev. Chataigner
1250	8 December 1866	Isaac Parish Martha Piper	Isaac Parish Martha Piper 💍 1866/7789	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 19	Ferry road Ferry road	15 years 12 mths	Church of St. John	1175	Consent of Father duly attested	8 December 1866	Rev. C.B. Hoare
1251	8 December 1866	John Maffey Elizabeth Craw	John Maffy Elizabeth Craw 💍 1866/7735	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 17	Papanui Do	4 years 4 years	House of Wm Grant Christchurch	1187	John Craw Father	8 December 1866	Rev. C. Fraser
1252	11 December 1866	John Gay Ann Foster	John Gay Anne Foster 💍 1866/7792	Bachelor Spinster	Stable Keeper	24 21	Christchurch Do	6 yrs 12 mths	church of St. John	1176		11 December 1866	Rev. C.B. Hoare

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).